Damn, wasn’t the Olympic opening ceremony pretty effing awesome? I mean, no one else can throw a couple thousand performers out there and do it as well as the Chinese.
I asked Mr. A what he thought as we were watching:
Me: “So, you are impressed?”
Mr.A: “Yes.”
Me: “What are you thinking?”
Mr. A: “I should have worked harder at learning Chinese.”
Me: “Does it make you feel proud of your people?”
Mr. A: “Yes, but also a little scared.”
Me: “Scared?”
Mr. A: “Yeah, see how those guys are walking all over that big lit-up globe? It is like they are saying ‘We are coming to take over the world with our massive numbers and ostentatious display of new found wealth!’”
Me: “Yup, I can see how one might interpret it that way…but look! There are the happy faces of all the children of the world flashing on the screens. They are smiling because they are happy to be conquered by the wealthy Chinese masses! If they manage the world has well as they have managed the opening ceremony, we will all be happier once China rules the world! Just give into your Chinese-ruled destiny, my friend.”
Mr. A: “Man, the Chinese are good at propaganda.”
My husband and I had a conversation about how those dictators sure know how to get things done. Hard not to admire the sheer spectacle.
I’m with you..it was pretty darn amazing. Best I’ve ever seen. And, it was a little weird looking at my kids on the couch thinking, wow…then and now. Pretty big differences. But then I sort of knew my kid’s and their people would rule the world one day anyway.
I got up yesterday morning and watched it live on Canadian tv. Unbelievable! Since I have started taking taiji I have learned how hard some of those moves are. Especially the gymnast who circled the stadium and lit the torch. Such determination and dedication to learn all those routines is awesome and scary. I mentioned to the department chair at UB about the racism some Chinese experience here. Her response was that it can’t be racism as there are 1.3 billion Chinese so they are never a minority. I’m going to learn Mandarin so I will be able to speak to our conquerers.
It really was amazing. We just watched it this morning. The boys loved everything, but especially the fireworks. The Olympics actually does bring up lots of opportunites to talk about peace, sportsmanship, race, politics, etc in a pretty child-friendly way, I think. Should be interesting. We’ll probably let the boys watch quite a bit of it. I remember watching the Olympics as a kid and being all caught up in the whole spirit of harmony and friendship and all of that.
I know this comment will bother you, but someone HAS to say it. I am so repulsed by the Chinese repression of their now homeless masses that were pushed out of the homes to build that freaking ugly birdsnest, by the behavior of the government towards the foreign media and their arrests of foreign nationals VISITING their country that I wouldn’t watch this Olympics if you paid me. I’m sorry, but that government SUCKS.
I’m curious, what your thoughts are on the fact that SO MANY MILLIONS of dollars was spent on one cermonial night, and so many orphans are sitting in orphanages that aren’t heated….
I think that the opening ceremonies were AMAZING, but down inside, I have a pit of sadness for the money spent, and the people displaced….
They don’t mention all the people put in labor camps for not being able to do their dance moves.
It was such an amazing show! I felt really proud that China was able to pull this off.
I’ve been to China several times throughout the years (since 1995) and each time I’m amazed by how much has changed.
What’s most evident is that back in the early 90′s my parents had a lot of friends that were eager to immigrate to the US, Hong Kong, or Canada. But now they are all starting to move back to China
impressive show!
Marcus exclaimed “why can’t daddy be from china? China is way cooler than Vietnam.”
Yeah, awesome, except for how fake it all was. Just one example:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/12/olympics2008.china1
I love China, and I’m thrilled that I will be going back to visit next year. But this fake display, along with all of the sanitizing of Beijing that happened (efforts to clean up “Chinglish”, etc.) left a strong distaste for the Olympics for me. Sad…